House Republicans Propose Cutting EPA Budget, Preventing Rules

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans in the U.S. Congress
proposed a budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
that would set funding at the lowest level since 1997 and
prevent the agency from issuing clean-water standards.

The House Appropriations Committee released a draft of the
legislation, to be considered tomorrow, establishing agency
funding at $7 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, more
than 17 percent below the current level.

The measure cuts funding and “prevents the EPA and other
federal bureaucracies from stepping out of their lane and
stifling our economic recovery,” Representative Harold Rogers,
the committee chairman, said today in a statement.

Republicans in the House have passed a series of measures
aimed at preventing EPA regulations on power plants, cement
factories and paper mills from going into effect. Tomorrow the
Senate is scheduled to vote on a measure from Oklahoma
Republican James Inhofe that would overturn an EPA regulation
cutting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

In addition to reducing the budget, the Republican measure
would prevent the EPA from issuing a statement showing how it
would enforce the Clean Water Act. Farmers, homebuilders and
other manufacturers warn that the guidance may extend the EPA’s
reach by expanding the definition of waters that it regulates.

President Barack Obama’s administration proposed an EPA
budget of $8.3 billion, which is $105 million below the current
funding level. EPA appropriations reached a record $11 billion
in 2010.

The House Appropriations subcommittee is scheduled to vote
tomorrow on the legislation, which also includes funding for the
Department of Interior.